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User blog:Willbachbakal/Custom Patch Notes/Champions/Tanks
Tanks are a bit of a mystery. The definition of what a tank is, or what they're supposed to do, has remained hazy throughout League of Legends, to the point where it's not only difficult to say precisely what the role of a tank should be, but also to differentiate between "true" tanks and very tanky fighters. A lot of this has to do with tanky itemization having really poor specialization, and simply providing extra durability instead of specializing all that well into durability for the sake of dealing persistent damage (i.e. items for fighters, namely divers and juggernauts, though the Juggernaut update has added some of these), and durability that rewards less damage-oriented plays such as applying persistent crowd control, locking down targets or just absorbing damage for the rest of the team (i.e. items for tanks). As a result, durable fighters and tanks overlap heavily, to the point where they're usually picked for the same reasons ("I want a champion who can take a lot of damage"). Another part of the problem comes from tanks themselves, many of whom weren't designed to function as proper tanks so much as be very durable and full of crowd control. While itemization changes are likely a matter for another page, there are a few changes to tanks that could clearly separate them from fighters. The goals of the changes below are the following: Incentivize Tanks to Take Damage= The core difference between a tanky fighter and a proper tank should be that a tank builds tanky because they derive power from getting enemies to focus them, whereas a diver or juggernaut wants to be durable because they should expect to take damage anyway. Whereas any other champion would want to steer clear of damage whenever they can, a tank should want to throw themselves into a crossfire and draw as much attention to themselves as possible. Moreover, a tank's playstyle should force people to focus them: tanks should be able to remain a threat even when kited, contrarily to fighters, and their threat generation should be their greatest and most visible asset. |-| Disincentivize Kill Playstyles= While a tank can deal a fair amount of damage, and should be able to have their damage scale somewhat, a tank's optimal playstyle should not be to try and kill their targets, so much as grab their attention, and tanks should reward their players for playing more selflessly. While some tanks step a little into fighter territory, such as or , tanks should feel satisfied even when they die without getting a kill, as long as they diverted the enemy's attention to themselves at the right time. |-| Establish Clear Tank Contributions= One of the reasons why tanks and fighters often overlap is because they tend to contribute many of the same features, namely durability and crowd control. However, whereas fighters should only be able to lay down crowd control in bursts or low amounts, tanks should be able to be the only champions capable of applying CC to enemies persistently, and do so in amounts that would be unbalanced on any champion capable of dealing large amounts of damage. Any fighter should clearly be going into battle and using their crowd control with their intention to kill, whereas a tank should be happy as long as they get to constantly output crowd control, or whichever other unique tank mechanics they have in store. Alistar= ;Niche: The Disruptor * Alistar has been a core competitive pick for years, but has also struggled with heavy accessibility issues to newer players. To the uninitiated, Alistar's abilities don't feel too strong, have excessively long cooldowns, and are costly to use even once, but to those who have mastered him, Alistar is a champion who packs both incredible reliability and versatility, able to peel and initiate on demand. As with a lot of older champions, this reliability is fairly double-sided, as it's led to weak immediate power elsewhere and is hard for people to exploit properly when learning him. It's also led to situations where his reliability becomes overbearing, and is likely one of the main reasons why he was kicked out of the jungle (he could reliably punt enemy champions out of the safety of their tower and easily dive them thereafter early on). Overall, his power-to-reliability ratios are a bit skewed, and he also suffers from a ton of features that haven't aged well, such as AP-scaling damage and an indiscriminate AoE heal that both feel weak (and often not that useful), plus an incongruous AD steroid on his ultimate. The goal of this rework is to keep a fair degree of that reliability, but also implement it on a sliding scale relative to power, while smoothing out the cow's power on each ability and allowing him to jungle (support would still remain a major role for him, though, if not his main role). * Stats: ** Base attack damage increased to 65 from . ** Attack damage growth increased to 5 from . * ** Renamed to Headbutt. ** Reworked: After using an ability, Alistar's next basic attack within seconds deals bonus magic damage and . If they collide with a wall, large monster or one of their allied champions, they stop and both are dealt the same magic damage. * ** Mana cost reduced to 60 at all ranks from . ** Active reworked: Alistar channels for up to seconds. Upon ending the channel, he slams the ground around himself, with the distance increasing based on how long he channeled, and all enemies hit for a duration equal to the time spent channeling, and dealing them (50 ) (1 + time spent channeling) magic damage. * ** Renamed to Trample. ** Mana cost reduced to 60 at all ranks from . ** Active reworked: Alistar locks his direction and begins channeling for up to seconds. Upon ending the channel, he charges forward, with the distance increasing based on how long he channeled, stopping at the first enemy champion hit, all enemies hit for the time spent channeling and dealing them (50 ) (1 + time spent channeling) magic damage. * ** Renamed to Unbreakable Will. ** Mana cost changed to 60 at all ranks from . ** Cooldown removed. ** Active reworked: *** When on an allied champion, Alistar marks them as his Fleshing Partner at no mana cost, linking them to him for the purposes of Unbreakable Will while both remain within 1000 units of each other. This has a static 1-minute cooldown. *** Every second Alistar or his Fleshing Partner deals damage to or receives damage from an enemy champion or large monster, he builds up a stack of Unbreakable Will. At 10 stacks, Alistar gains the ability to auto-activate Unbreakable Will, consuming all stacks to heal himself and his Fleshing Partner, if within range, for maximum health)}}. * ** Cooldown changed to from . ** Renamed to Stampede. ** Crowd control cleanse removed. ** removed. ** Now lasts as long as Alistar , instead of a fixed 7 seconds. ** While Stampede is active, Alistar on every basic attack. |-| Blitzcrank= ;Niche: The Isolator * Blitzcrank is a champion with one of the game's most powerful and iconic abilities, but because of this he's also been stuck as a one-trick pony: he's the absolute best at pulling enemies away from their allies, but that's pretty much the only thing he can do, and he can only do it in pretty much the same way. Another problem adding to this is the combination of all of his innate crowd control with tremendous burst, causing him to be able to almost single-handedly kill targets himself upon catching them without them being able to fight back. As a result, his outputs tend to be extremely binary, which makes gameplay around him often less interesting that it deserves to be. The goal of these changes is mainly to give him more options, while also clearly separating his burst from his crowd control. Overall, Blitzcrank should be the best at isolating enemies from their allies, and perhaps he also deserves to do genuinely interesting stuff with his ultimate, potentially spiriting away multiple opponents at a time. * Stats: ** Now uses Energy instead of Mana. ** Base attack damage increased to 81 from . ** Attack damage growth increased to 7 from . * : ** Renamed to Static Charge. ** Reworked: an enemy champion or large monster marks them with a static charge for seconds, causing each of Blitzcrank's strikes against them to restore to himself. The mark is refreshed with each of Blitzcrank's strikes, and while a Static Charge is in effect, Blitzcrank cannot mark any other enemy. * : ** Cost changed to energy}} from at all ranks. ** Cooldown reduced to from . ** Damage removed. ** removed. ** Now affects all units, including allies. ** Blitzcrank now always takes the time to retract his arm, regardless of whether or not he caught an enemy with it. * : ** Cost removed. ** Cooldown increased to from 15 at all ranks. ** Duration increased to 6 from 5. ** increased to , decaying over the duration, from . ** Now grants Blitzcrank 80% cooldown reduction on and for the duration. *** This does not stack with Blitzcrank's current cooldown reduction. *** If either of those abilities are on cooldown when Overdrive is cast, their cooldowns are reduced by the same amount, down to a minimum of seconds. ** Striking a target affected by during Overdrive brings the bonus movement and back to full strength, though the total duration remains the same. ** Self- now also affects . * : ** Cost changed to from . ** Cooldown changed to from . ** Bonus damage removed. * : ** Renamed to Universal Load Transporter. ** Cost removed. ** Active cooldown increased to from 30 at all ranks. ** Active reworked: after charging for 1 second, Blitzcrank sends out a static field around himself that captures all units around him, placing them in for seconds. At the end of the duration or upon his death, Blitzcrank discharges the field, ejecting all enemies at their position relative to him, but at his current location. *** Enemies marked with are immune to Universal Load Transporter. *** Blitzcrank also permanently captures all Poros caught in the field, though they emerge from his body upon his death. *** U.L.T. has no effect on epic monsters and structures. |-| Maokai= ;Niche: The Spell Eater * Maokai's gone a long way from his original, clunky self, and most of his current ability set truly shines, offering meaty (bark-y?) satisfaction in its use as well as impactful contributions in both dueling and teamfights. The exception to this, though, is his ultimate, which carries a lot of power without feeling especially amazing on its own, as is often the case for stat aura-type bonuses, and has recently had its cooldown bumped to less fun levels. In general, Maokai is still an amazing champion, so the goal of these changes isn't to drastically change his playstyle, but rather to make his ultimate feel more powerful while maintaining the same niche, and also push him a little closer towards his lore/gameplay fantasy of getting into the thick of combat and absorbing as much of the enemy's magic as he can. * ** Cost changed to 100 mana at all ranks, from 40 + 30 per second. ** Cooldown increased to from . ** Active reworked: Maokai shields himself for maximum health}} for up to 10 seconds. While the shield holds, all nearby enemy abilities that pass near him are intercepted and stopped completely, applying their effects to him instead. After 5 seconds, Maokai can detonate the shield if it still holds, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the interception area, and the shield will detonate automatically at the end of its duration. |-| Tahm Kench= ;Niche: The Target Remover * Tahm Kench has been a controversial pick the moment players realized the power of his kit, particularly his Devour. While pretty good at going for the enemy team, locking down key targets and protecting key allies, Tahm's strength has often spilled into less pleasant avenues, such as overly strong ally escapes and oppressive lane bullying. For a tank with no real mobility, Tahm doesn't really feel like his weaknesses are all that tangible, with tremendous reach on his abilities and pretty impressive sticking power that can massively punish opponents for trading with him. The goal of these changes is to put more emphasis on his weaknesses, reducing his overall ranged threat, bullying potential and even his mobility, as well as trimming off some excess power in certain places, while unlocking much more power in key parts of his kit, such as his ability to capture enemies where he wants them and shrug off poke. In the end, Tahm deserves to be a near-immovable object who can only be truly dealt with through proper combat, but should also give his opponents plenty of opportunities in the meantime to outmaneuver him and take advantage of his low effective range. * Stats: ** Base health increased to 800 from 610. ** Base attack damage and growth removed (reduced to 0). *** Tahm Kench can still use basic attacks normally, dealing damage through . ** Movement speed reduced to 325 from 335. * : ** Applying or refreshing stacks now deals magic damage. *** Damage applies to all enemies, though Tahm Kench cannot apply stacks to epic monsters. ** Stack duration reduced to from 5. ** Stack decay interval increased to 1 second from seconds. * : ** Ability-specific damage removed. ** strength reduced to from . ** duration reduced to from 2 at all ranks. ** duration now matches the duration. ** Can no longer be used to non-champions from a distance. * : ** Cooldown reduced to 10 at all ranks from . ** Range reduced to 175 from 250. *** Range is now calculated edge-to-edge rather than center-to-center. ** Can now be used on any target with three stacks of . *** This means the ability can be used on non-epic large monsters. ** Enemy devour duration reduced to from . ** Ally devour duration reduced to match enemy devour duration from . ** Ally cast reworked: Tahm Kench channels indefinitely and remains immobile for the duration, during which time any champion can click on him to jump through his mouth into his belly, ending the channel. Moving or reactivating Devour cancels the channel. *** Champions need to be able to move in order to enter Tahm Kench's belly. ** Enemy damage now only applies if Tahm targeted them directly, but applies the moment he devours them, rather than upon regurgitation. *** If Devour kills its target, Tahm Kench swallows their corpse permanently and does not regurgitate them. ** Ability-specific damage removed. *** Now deals damage. ** Self- and ground on enemy devour removed. ** Self-movement speed boost on ally devour removed. ** Regurgitating non-champions no longer launches them or causes them to deal damage to surrounding enemies. ** Using no longer disables Devour. * : ** Cooldown reduced to 10 at all ranks from . ** Passive reworked: Tahm Kench converts of the damage he takes into . ** Shield duration reduced to 5 from 6. * : ** Passive removed. ** Active reworked: Tahm Kench channels for seconds before blinking to the target area, which bubbles to signal his arrival. *** Tahm Kench can travel while his belly is full, but only if whoever's inside entered willingly. 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